Friday Photo: Deneshey Road school huts

At last! Many thanks to Frank Baker for sending me this photo of the old school huts that were once at the bottom of Deneshey Road. I’ve been after a photo of this site for absolutely ages! I’m guessing that photo was taken after the sheds were last used in anger as the windows look boarded up and maybe there’s a section of roof missing (lefthand)?

The site was redeveloped around 1989-90 by a property company called Brock that built a few bungalows and six mews-style houses. Access to the close (Hume Court) was via electric gates that I’m pretty sure hardly ever worked and have since rusted away.

Despite being just a young whipper snapper myself I can remember these sheds quite well as I went to school there one day a week for a year. Woodwork, art, chemistry and technical drawing – a subject that my O Level unclassified grade clearly indicates was one that I didn’t really take a shine too! I can’t remember what we did for lunch …if it was school dinners then for me they must have been pretty forgettable!

Were these huts/sheds always used for schooling or were they used for other purposes prior to that?

Did you go to school here? Did you work here? Have your say in the comments below. And if anyone has other photos of this site please get in touch as I’d love to share them.

Comments

I went to the Parade School when it was the first year annexe for West Kirby Girls Grammar. Without any kitchens! So every day, come rain, shine or sleet, we had to walk along to get lunch in the huts . and on Christmas we lined up against the wall and sang Christmas Carols for them. That would have even 1980?

I remember these buildings well and lived just the other side of the Parade School at 50 North Parade all my life before leaving home. In fact, my mother worked in the Parade School as a secretary for a number of years!

Well yes indeed what a reminder, I attended the Parade in the 1960’s. The long building parallel to Deneshey road was the school dining hall and I remember traipsing from the Parade daily, the building with part of the roof missing was the Metalwork shop and the buildings at right angles to the dining hall were ordinary classrooms. Not seen in the photograph but over the back was the new science hut a great place for memories with Mr. McKendrick taking our physics and chemistry lessons.

West Kirby Girls got new buildings, Calday Boys had a new annex that was built twice because of technical issues, the girls got Newton and we got errrrr these to go with our maximum of 5 CSE’s (no ‘O’ levels until we joined with girls school.) Wonderful place. I think character building was the expression at the time.

I gloriously failed my Eleven Plus in 1960 and duly spent that year at the Parade. I can remember mainly using one of those huts for eating lunch (after battling winds down the promenade to get there) and it seems to stick in my mind that the boys had a woodwork classroom on the site.

What looms even larger in the back of my mind were Physical Education classes……groups of female children in their navy blue knickers running through the wind and rain on the beach and prom almost matching the colour of their underwear! Those were the days!!!!

I was one of the first boys to go there we called them the prefabs I had Clem Morgan For math Jim moulding for metal work and in those days boys had cooking classes but I can not remember the teachers name and yes it was a miserable Walk in the winter I left the parade in1952

Started teaching at the Parade in 1972 and still going strong at Hilbre today. Taught technical drawing for a year at Deneshey alongside Jim Parry , Charlie Nicol, Johnny Mounsey, Pete Colburn and Norman Kendrick in the Science lab. The staff ate in the canteen and we’re served by the kids at their table! Happy days,

i remember mr kendrick ,,,, my form teacher was mr marsden,maths was mrs sanderson and mr harding …. bioligy was mrs deveraux and im sure i had you teaching me at technical drawing ( then known as g.e.d ) ……
however i will never forget mr bruce the headmaster … i only had to visit his office once and come close to getting the cane ….. looking back the cane was more of a detterant than a punishment …… that said my elder brother eric told me he used to put magazines down his trousers when he got the cane
happy days steve and best wishes from a ex pupil

I to used to use the prefabs around the same time as yourself John, I had joyceln moulding as a form
teacher at the prefabs also she taught needlework, I presumed they were an overspill from
the main school, there was another teacher Mr Chandler who was also a form teacher at
the prefabs and I think that Mr Mounsey was another, as you say damn cold when changing
from the main school to the prefabs.
cheers Sandra

LIKE JOHN RAINFORD I WAS ONE OF THE FIRST TO GO TO WHAT WE CALLED THE PREFABS
I REMENBER THAT THE BUIDERS WERE STILL ON SITE . THERE WAS NO PAVING SO WE WERE PLAYING
ON SAND ,AND AS THE SAND HILLS WERE CLEARED BY THE BULLDOZER, WASP NESTS WERE FOUND
GREAT FUN !!!!! . WE HAD BOTH GIRLS AND BOYS MIXED .ONE LAD USED TO PUT FROGS IN A GIRLS DESK ,(MUCH SREAMING )
MY FAMILY MOVED TO MANCHESTER WHEN I WAS HALF WAY 2nd. YEAR

Mr. Morgan scared me terribly. But he held us spellbound when he read stories to us probably played a significant role in giving me a love for reading . As far as eyes go, a Mrs Barlowe convinced us that she had eyes at the back of her head!!! She never missed a trick!!

I left the Parade in 1954. I had many lessons in the Prefabs. During lunch times, if the tide was in, we used to play “dodging the waves” along the promenade. Many a pupil used to resume afternoon lessons absolutely drenched.

No one so far has mentioned miss Weaving, our form and English teacher who certainly gave me a lasting love of English literature. She used bring her old spaniel into the classroom – Clover was her name and she was pretty smelly!

Hi Carol
I was on to another ex parade pupil some time last year where we talked about Miss Weaving
and her smelly spaniel clover especially when clover walked the aisles between the desks!
You are so right though about how good a teacher she was , and like yourself gave me a
lasting love of literature and History.
Happy days!
Sandra

I remember Jim Molyneux took us for metal work. Above the blackboard it read.
” A thing of beauty is a joy forever”. Somewere their is a copper ash tray I made. Not sure if that would now be deemed joyful

I was at the parade for the first year of high school1975 ,every lunchtime we had to walk to the huts for lunch,some good food the puddings were awesome.we ha td lessons with Charlie nichol, Td with George Sanderson,a great man he told us about his time in the Royal Navy during the war ,one of my favourite
Teachers,another was pete colburne for metalwork another awesome teacher and always ready for a joke,Clive dumphy taught woodwork for a year then went on to be an art teacher another good man,what memories, came home to hoy lake in 2009 from my home in New Zealand managed to get a look around the old parade school with my wife so many good times there ,could almost hear jock Boyd shouting ,and the classrooms where we had lessons,Kia ora from a parade old boy.

I attended the Parade in the 70s (the year of the ladybird plague – the playground at the Parade was a crunchy mass of ladybirds!) and recall the daily trek over to the prefabs for dinner. No particular dish stands out as memorable but I’ve retained a soft spot for school custard. Our year also went there for certain lessons, as I recall vividly how beautiful a sliver of onion skin looks under a microscope, and it was there, in the prefabs, I saw it.

yes,i remember walking from the parade to the prefabs for woodwork and metalwork … does anyone remember the P.E teacher called “mr Roberts ” …… and the maths teacher “mrs sanderson …..
I was there around 1979 and loved every minute if it …… its a shame things had to change but I suppose it was going to happen sooner or later
great memories !

My bedroom window seen in the photo overlooked the huts. The smell of the kichens and the bins always lingered -over boiled cabbage and rotting veg. As a ten year old I used to climb onto the rooves via a drainpipe where the shell of a car was parked. I chatted over the fence with the smokers behind the hut adjacent to the park until one threatened to set light to me with his lighter.

Oh my god….as a child grew up and….lived next door…that’s my house far right near the van….my brothers bedroom window! What memories…..and as a teenager climbing the back garden fence to peep at the boys during break/lunch when it was a school. The house was sold around mid/end 1980s just after the site was demolished for housing. Great memories.

1949/50; 4 classrooms, playing on the sand hills, Miss Leaming (teacher), Margaret Smith (a girl I remember to this day., The wind constantly blowing from the sea, Sand everywhere.’Freddie’ Fowler, head teacher and many more happy memories of Hoylake Parade School and the prefabs.

71-75 Broke my nose in the the small playground there. Mr Kendrick swatted me over the head when my bunsen burner blew out because the windows were open. Mr Colburn taught woodwork, drove my go-cart over the flower beds to our amusement. Endured swimming in the baths in frigid weather. I remember the ladybirds. I lived up deneshey on saxon road so was bummed when I had to bus to newton in 73, despite the girls!

Was at parade 70-75
Mr Nichols td
Old car for the less bright to work on
Science with Mr Kendrick in far corner prefab
‘re in same room as td I think
Woodwork with Mr Colburn who used to smash up poor workmanship with a mallet.. .
Mr Kendrick most feared cancer who used to smoke roll ups in class
Happy days

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